Continuing Conversation: Science as Story Telling

Many people now realize that even the most rigorous of scientific experiments got influenced by the experimenter. We can't isolate bits of life from the other bits when we are all part of life as a whole. Even so, the experiments are useful and often support useful conclusions that can be used for further understanding of something -- that is, so long as the story is told. And the story teller's personality will creep into that story too.

Even so, I'm saying that the story is the cement that makes science accessible (and does the same for every other field of study, no exceptions here). When I was young, I thought that the identifying feature of a scientist was his inability to write (his story) in a way that anyone else could understand it and relate it to other things in life. My Dad did basic science (pulmonary physiology and the spread of disease) and I was a lab rat from a very very young age (Dad didn't want anyone to think that his kids were in any way too high or mighty to not participate in tests of pulmonary function). Dad wrote his book (not often read but it hasn't been proven wrong or anything) on airborne infection. He got awards for his work. And still astonishing numbers of people don't know that you get a cold from other people's sneezes, either in the same room or spread through the central air conditioning system. What was missing? Not the science but the storytelling. Hey, my Dad's research should have changed the world, so why are we still getting colds so often?

The more I think about this the more I'm concluding that the storytelling function is critical, not just to science but to every academic endeavor. Gosh, it even suggests that disorganized liberal arts students who can write but can't remember appointments (I am the guilty party here) might have a purpose to serve in the world. That would be because science has got to be more than just the competition to publish about "it" first. It also matters that the story be well told, well enough so that other people can take it in, build on it, make use of it and the rest.

I should say the same thing about business, accounting, law, engineering, gardening, road building, you name it. A good education really needs to include some good practice in story telling, don't you think?

[Were you wondering? My Dad was Richard Lord Riley, now deceased.]